Saturday, July 22, 2017

stamp people (the siblings)

I thought I was getting my Stamp People obsession under control, but it reared its wild head again and dragged me down a tangent. This tangent resulted in a new crop of Stamp People inspired by each of my five siblings. The images posted here were all created from used postage stamps and old cooking magazines.

I'm the oldest of six, you see. My younger siblings are all unique and possess much more than one talent each. Such as my sister, the poet. My next sister, the chicken lady. My next sister, the sign language interpreter. My brother, the philosopher. And my youngest sister, the poster designer. None of them can be captured in just one image. So it's a safe bet that there will soon be alternate versions of the sibling series. Such as the last image I posted below, which was also inspired by my first sister.

It may be a while before I get back onto the main road of traditional etegami. But not too long. I think.

Thank you, Therese! The weather has settled down for now. In Hokkaido, the school children have just begun their summer vacation, so it is a bit noisy outside. Maybe their antics will inspire me to do some Stamp Children. ha ha

A Beginner's Guide to Etegami

what is etegami?

Etegami (e= "picture"; tegami= "letter/message") are simple drawings accompanied by a few apt words. They are usually done on postcards so that they can be easily mailed off to one's friends. Though etegami has few hard-and-fast rules, traditional tools and materials include writing brushes, sumi ink, blocks of water-soluble, mineral-based pigments called gansai, and washi postcards that have varying degrees of "bleed." They often depict some ordinary item from everyday life, especially items that bring a particular season to mind.